Many of the readers participating in the chat have never heard of me, so they don’t realize the landmine they’ve stepped on when they ask questions like:

Which book would you say was the hardest to write and why?

You’ll be impressed to know I resisted the urge to make a hardest joke. Even though I really wanted to. Even though I thought of at least six hard-on jokes before I finished logging in.

I said logging in.

OK, that’s out of my system now. All jokes aside, it’s a very good question. Did she mean hardest in the technical sense, hardest in the emotional sense, or hardest in the bone-daddy sense?

Sadly, I suspected the latter was not the case. But I couldn’t decide between the other two options.

Technically speaking, Making Waves was a tough book to write. There was a lot of research involved in figuring out the geographic logistics of the journey and the nitty-gritty boating details.

Then there’s the challenge of trying to keep a story interesting when the characters are all stuck in the confines of a fairly small boat. By the time I’d reached the halfway point of the story, I was ready to gouge my eyes out with a popsicle stick. This is actually one benefit to the seat-of-my-pants approach I take with writing. Since I didn’t have the story plotted out ahead of time, I could shake things up by adding a new twist that got them off the boat.

Well, and got them off in other ways. The beauty of writing romance is that sex can always spice things up.

But going back to the original question, perhaps she meant hardest emotionally. Without question,that honor goes to Mad Crush.

(Er, did I forget to mention that the third book in my contract – the one I’ve tentatively referred to as Let it Breathe – has officially been retitled Mad Crush? I like Mad Crush a whole big bunch, so I’m thrilled with the new title. Wait. Was this one of those details I’m supposed to keep secret for now? I forget. Well, let that be a lesson – never tell me any secrets).

Anyway, I started writing Mad Crush within a couple months of signing my three-book deal with Sourcebooks. Within a couple months of that, my marriage of 13+ years began to unravel.

Under normal circumstances, I can write a book in about 3.5months. Mad Crush took ten months. That doesn’t count editing time, which is still ongoing even now. True, there were several months where I wasn’t writing a word on the manuscript, but even when I was writing, I wasn’t doing it quickly. Most days, it was all I could do just to write a blog post and get it up.

(Should we pause here and make note of the fact that I just used the phrases doing it quickly and get it up without snickering once?)

I’m actually making my final pass through Mad Crush this weekend, and looking forward to making tweaks based on the mindset of someone feeling hopeful and giddily in love instead of like someone who wants to fill her pockets with rocks and walk off the end of a pier.

What’s one of the hardest things you’ve ever done? It can be writing-related or not, either one. Or bone-daddy related, I guess. Far be it from me to discriminate against perverts.

Being a latchkey kid, a survival of molestation as a child and abuse from a former spouse there have been a lot of difficult times in my life. But all those negative things have made me a strong, independent woman with quick wit, a large sense of humor and the moxie that makes me who I am today.

My father says its because I was born premature and have been fighting since the day I was born. I can always see the forest through the trees. I'm not sure if he's right, but I'll buy it.

There is always a silver lining, and anything worth having is worth working/fighting for. Look at your success and your following! Kudos to you.

My second book was the hardest for me to write. My MC is kinda depressed and... she's just not in a good headspace. I wrote a lot of it sick (just cold sick, not seriously ill.

Apparently that makes me cranky :P

Lol, um, no, I wrote it at the beginning of winter which can kinda make me unhappy (not a cold person) and... it's just a sadder book that my others and it can make me a bit depressed. It also had *major* plot issues and I had to rewrite the majority of it.

I *cough* have been avoiding revising it. Mostly by writing another book XD

Sitting erect in my chair may be the hardest part of writing for me. I like sitting back and taking it slowly. There's too much stress in the world. We all need to take the plunge and release the tension in our lives. We pounce when we can slide in. Take it easy. Not to say we shouldn't grab it tight with gusto. But enjoy it. Let it happen, to come in its own time. Life is good, and certainly the size of your enthusiasm counts.

The hardest thing I've ever done is ask my ex-husband to leave. The scariest was sit helplessly bedside watching my 11-day old son fight to live and praying he won (He did, thank God).

The hardest book to write...technically - my psych/crime novel. Physically/emotionally - all of them because they've all been written juggling four kids/husband/friend/work committments and the guilt that comes with tuning into fictional characters when real live ones want/need my attention.

Hardest thing I've ever done? I think I'll have to say picking up my life and moving to Montana from Illinois with no friends or family there, a tentative living situation that fell through the day I got there, and no vehicle. It worked out though.

Then it was really hard to decide almost two years later that I needed to move back to Texas. Luckily, there was a LOT of family here. Although the decision was harder, the move was easier. And I'm still here. :)

By far the hardest thing I've ever done was survive my "surprise divorce" after twenty-one years of marriage. Ironically, it occurred the same year I'd decided to get serious about my writing.

But I not only survived, I thrived (after some time). I moved to a new city, got a power job (with a power schedule) and spent five years regaining my individuality. The down side--I'd developed a writing phobia and had limited time to push through it. About the time I decided I was perfectly happy on my own--i.e. not sharing my closets--I met "the one" and we were married six months later. That was 10 years ago.

I worked the first few years, and had the same demanding schedule. He urged me to quit to write, but deep down I associated writing with abandonment. I finally took the leap of faith and left my job. I've finished one novel (in query process) and I'm working on my second. I also blog three times a week. Though it's nothing like I expected, I love every butt in the chair moment.

So that hardest thing turned out to be a blessing--it just took a decade or so to manifest.